


wish you were here

by steveeology



Series: drabble babbles [11]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Letters, Photographs, Sad, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 18:34:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21593179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steveeology/pseuds/steveeology
Summary: requested prompts from tumblr - #55: finding old photographs you’d forgotten + #62: fingertips smudged in blue ink
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Reader
Series: drabble babbles [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1523150
Kudos: 15





	wish you were here

"After you went on ice, SHIELD kept and preserved some of your personal belongings. Thought that it’s only right to return them to you.”

That’s what Nick Fury had told him as he handed Steve a medium sized brown box. It looks worn, given the years that had passed by, but it was still in tact. It had been untouched, the director assured him.

The Captain nodded politely, said his thanks, and walked out of Fury’s office with the box in his arms.

He carried it all the way to the provided quarters for him in the Stark Tower. The box didn’t have much weight in it, given he didn’t really carry much belongings in the war, knowing he’d never go back anyway. So all he brought was the important things dear to him. But even so, it felt like the it was a heavy mass, carrying trails and remnants of his past.

He sat down on his carpeted bedroom floor, took a deep breath and opened the box with careful fingers.

Steve saw all the possessions he knew all too well — his dog tags, old documents, books he had read cover to cover, some drawings.

A wash of nostalgia took over him. Steve’s chest tightened and his breathing felt cold from his nose to his lungs. His shoulders slumped and back hunched as he examined his things.

Underneath all these stuff, he sees a paper folder that was now color yellow due to the years it had been kept away. Steve opened it, and he was surprised with the contents.

It contained all of Y/N’s letters and photographs, the ones she sent him during the war.

Steve remembers it clearly — the day he was finally enlisted. He rushed to Y/N’s house as fast as his frail body could take him and told her the big news. She was happy for him, he knew that, but the sadness in her eyes wasn’t subtle too. They’ve been best friends for so long; Steve, Y/N, and Bucky were like the Three Musketeers. They were glued together, and to see Y/N’s best boys go to war hurt her deeply. They’ve only had each other for so long after all.

With teary eyes but a brave face, Y/N made Steve promise he’d come back to her and that he would write to her no matter what. He promised, and stuck to it. Every time the general would call him in and hand him an envelope, he’d excitedly read them and immediately write one back.

He can’t tell much information to her because of confidentiality, but he wrote to assure her he was alright and he was alive. It was all that mattered to Y/N.

 _Thank god SHIELD didn’t snoop through his stuff,_ Steve blushed as he reread the letters he had received and the drafts of the letters he wrote. There were so many of them, and his hands got sweaty just reading them. His fingertips were now smudged with ink. _They would’ve known how foolishly in love he was with his best friend._

She was _so beautiful,_ and he remembers every curve, every line, every color of her face. And looking through the photographs of her that Steve had received from Y/N, she was _so young_. He traced her features, a smile appearing from his lips. But that smile was soon erased when he remembered the time that had passed. It’s been 70 years. God, she would surely be in her old age or worse, _dead_.

Steve shook his head, not wanting to even _think_ about _that_.

It was unfair, _so cruelly unfair,_ to have time steal her from him. While he was stuck in the middle of nowhere, she was out there, living her life — maybe she got married and got a big family too. God, Steve hoped so. The last thing he wanted for her was to be alone.

But that’s exactly what happened, right?

Looking through the written words of Y/N and her beautiful smile in the photos, Steve realizes this: he’s still in love with her. No matter how much time took from him, it could never take the feelings he had for her. The feelings he didn’t have the guts to tell her, in fear of ruining things and the rejection he might’ve faced.

He loves her, so much. But did she love him back?

He never got the answer to that. Never will.

No matter how many wars he could win with his fists and all his strength, but he will always have the greatest loss — losing Y/N.


End file.
